The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, March 5, 1905, Page 5

THE SAN FRANCISCO SUNDAY . CALL 3US had farmed a his holding in the d, being an ardent ex- s longed for a wider s ricultural bent. innate spirit of wou allow him to “saw the fruits of his la- d in the strenuous reme satisfaction wake every hour 1d feast o r he be te From the ¢ cottage on the hill- sid looked down on a prospect of b ful valley land, about ten miles 8q r to himse “Jest let me g t Tierra rancho and Il 1 infernal greasers what aY with soil like at. I've got ¥ 1 P Pr how, and Ill be switched if his »e of young ones don’t inherit his al yeligion—'In at the spigot a the bung!”” at years Gringus had kept a busi- e on Rancho de la Tierra, con- ed it was only a question of time the Don would surrender his de- uent estate to somebody possessed prise ambition, and the nourished the hope that the that particular somebody be Joshua Gringus. es were peculiarly well s tall and slim; his half, but twice as was chiefly nose, organ was al- lley between her of he Gringus i. Joshua wi hills of eks. Joshua's Y wide, straight-cut and thin-lipped; his better half’s small, and rosy. The chin of the male square; of the female, d double. The man’s eyes el gray and keen as a blade; the woman’s big, blue and confident. His hair was sandy; hers brown. Joshua had-no religion in his make- up, but his wife had enough for two. For the advantage of both, each vied With the other in the practice of econ- omy. They had one child—a son, Jor junior—but he was grown up now and studying law at the univer- #ity. The elder Joshua set great ex- bectations on the boy and all the Grin- } gus gains were being pued up soleiy for Joshua junior. Mrs. Gringus shared not only her husband’s fortunes, but also his likes and dislikes, and she dreamed the same dreams about Rancho de la Tierra. She read her Bible every day regularly and had a special fondness for the book of Joshua, believing there was a deal of virtue in a name and persuading herself that Don Pa- gare and his family were like unto the enemies of the chosen people. In fact, she took it for granted that Joshua Gringus was ordained to rqpt them out of the valley even as the successor of Moses had rooted the Anakim out of Hebron. “Those De la Tierras never ought to've had the land in the beginning,” declared Mrs. Gringus. “They never worked a lick for it and they never de- served it. Didn’t you tell me that a Spanish King took that land away, from the missionaries and put the Tierras on it because they happened to be related to some grandee or other?” “Something like that,” replied Joshua, “Well, they never planted a tree nor a vine on the place, and they wouldn’t improve that thick-walled adobe of theirs if they lived in it a hundred years. Yes, and they mightn't have had that adobe If the missionaries hadn’t put it there.” “It don’'t matter much,” said Joshua. “The Don’s purty nigh the end of his string, and if our agent in town makes the right dicker I'll own the plasters on his grant before he knows it. The mortgagee needs ready money and I've got it. The Don hasn’t been keeping up his interest, and unless he unloads his stock at record-breaking prices there’ll be an exodus of his tribe inside of a year.” The dicker was made. The agent se- cuted the notes, and Gringus, master of the situation, considered the land in the valley as good as acquired. Almest needless to relate, Joshua had never been on familiar terms with Don Pagare. He couldn't tolerate “greas- ers.”” Once, it is true, he and Mrs. Gringus had gone down to a fiesta just for curiosity’s sake, the occasion being the anniversary of Mexican independ- ence. Knowing the De la Tierras to be overhead in debt, they were shocked at the extravagance revealed. SPURRING 55 I1ORSE AIS".% .RI?[.”.G' or LIE SYAS GR.W'§I/:5. “I suppose they've got a thousand people here,” observed Joshua, “and darned If they aln't giving the whole celebration free. Look at those big barrels over there under the trees— that’s wine—all free as water, by gosh!” The scene of the barbecue reminded Mrs, Gringus of something she had read about cannibals. Long treiches had been converted into furnaces of live coals and the meat was spicted on iron rods, the ends of which rasted on HERE are still those who profess to believe that religion is a spent force in the life of the modern world. When the subject is men- tioned they curl their lips. ele- vate their eyebrows and intimate that the possession of any interest In the subject shows one to be woefully behind the times. The thought back of such an attitude is that the joys and satis- factions connected with industry, com- merce, literature, music, art and friend- ship, all of which signify more to us than they did to our forefathers, have crowded religion to the wall. There are several ways of proving such persons to be mistaken. But I will select only one just now and cite a single powerful object lesson. Four months ago or so the people of Wales were moving along in their accustomed paths, eating and drinking, buying and selling, laboring and making mer- ry. To-day the country is alive with religlous interest from one end to the other. Suddenly and spontaneously a wave of spiritual enthusiasm has swept over the land. Nothing like it has been seen in any English-speaking country since the days of Whitfield and John ‘Wesley. All the ordinary interests of the people—theaters, political and lit- erary clubs—and even business ‘itself, to a large extent, have receded 'into the’ background. Men, women and children have found their chief delight in attending religious meetings and bearing wit- ness there to a new found faith and hope, The churches have been crowd- fewer cages to try. either siae of the hole. A dozen beeves and twice as many pigs and Jambs sizzled over the coals and the aroma made an excellent appetizer for the multitude. The meat was liberally salted and still more liberally peppered, and presently the people round about were reaching for ribs or chunks of it, the majority taking it in their hands and tearing at it with their teeth like Indiars. “The sight of this is all the barbecue 1 want,”” murmured Mrs. Gringus. “Me, too,” seconded Joshua. They strolled over to a newly built platform and watched the antics of the dancers. They could see little harmony-in the ed morning, afternoon and evening, and the most remarkable testimonies have come from lips. hitherto sealed. Natural public assembling piaces, like railway stations and: platforms. and public squares, have been -utilized, for impromptu meetings marked by no less sincerity and fervor than .those in the churches. Down in the mines in which the country abounds have been held prayer meetings ' morning and evening, the workmen-descending Is. = Religion - Dying Out? O P PP PP S oA o half_ an hour earlier in order not to take any time from. their ‘employ So widespread and, profound has’been the revival that religous leaders from other parts of Great Britain and even from the Continent have gone to Wales simply to study the. phenomena and catch ‘the enthusiasm. B “But are.not fluh and’ cant the main things in this revival?” Not at all. The notable feature has been the immedfate effect upon the moral - life of the Welsh people. Patronage of the saloons has fallen off tremen; ly. The magistrates’ have had Drunkayds, far us- .. movements of the twinkling feet, and were dumfounded to learn that two orchestras were on-hand, dividing the time, one resting while the other played. The Gringuses didn’t wait for the bareback riding and riata-throwing. They had seen enough, and they went home with a harder opinion of the Don than they bad entertained before. “In_at the spigot and cut at the bung,” repeated Jeshua. It was almost midsummer now, and, after the haying, a breathing spell had come. Joshua was anxious to size up things on Rancho de la Tierra and so, accompanied by Mrs. Gringus, he drove N e e PP e S blers, infidels and agnostics have faced completely about. The homeéssf hun- dreds of people saddened by the ex- cesses of some of their members have been completely- transformed. Shop- keepers have received thousands of dollars In' discharge of old debts which they had long ago credited to profit and loss. One of the most remarkable outcomes has been the sweetening of relations, between different classes in the com- munity. For a number of years a bit-! ter industrial struggle has been waging at the celebrated Penrhyn quarries, alienating members of the same house- hold and causing estrangements which promised to be lifelong. But now men and women have sought one another’s ~forgiveness and an atmosphere of peace and goodwill prevails, The testimony of competent, cool. dis- interested outsiders is to the effect that; this Welsh revival has meant already a moral transformation for the Welsh people, and:-has been accompanied by almost nothing purely sensational or, objectionable. Such a demonstration in one corner of the world to-day of the reality of re- liglous experience cannot be con- temptuously dismissed. It proves that John Fiske .was right when he coined that happy phrase, “the everlasting re- ality of religion.” Men still thirst for! the living God. ‘As long as they suffer, struggle, sin, lose ‘their dear ones and. realize their-own mortality, they' will sooner or later n‘ll&nv_en their re- ligious yearnings and seek to slake those yearnings at an exhaustless foun- e, e, THE PARSON. down on the pretense of getting Infor- mation for a cattle-buyer. A troop of young De la Tierras raced to open the gate for them, and when they drew near the casa, other De la Tierras were ready to assist them out and care for the horse. Don Pagare rosg from a seat on the long veranda and, taking a cigarette from between bis livs, made a brief speech of wel- come. Mrs. Gringus mentally noted the cigarette. Somebody had told her that the Don was everlasting- ly smoking—that he smoked as a soporific when he went to bed and as an eye-opener when he awoke; smoked before meals as an appetizer and after meals as an aid to digestion; smoked ,when the temperature was high to cool off, and when it was low to warm up; smoked for friend- ship’s sake, and then again for spite; smoked when he was thinking n_nd‘also when he wasn’t—while at other times he smoked for the sake of smoking. She perceived now that his face bore the color and greasy appearance of the skin of a smoked ham. His fingers, stained.with nicotine, looked as if they had been dipped in iodine. The Don was low-natured, but would have béen called well-fed. He wasn't bad look- ing, for he had clean-cut, régular fea- tures, and brilliant black eyes; ¢ he seemed to take delight in showing his milk-white teeth, which, Mrs. Gringus was certain, were false. There Was no denying the fact, however, that the Don was the pink of peliten After seating the Gringuses on the veranda, and before they could enter a protest, he brought out a small table, on which one of his children, following on his heels, set a tray containing glasses and a decanter of wine. This display of hospitality was vain, for Joshua didn't dare imbibe in his wife's presence, and Mrs. Gringus abominated the sight of an intoxicant. Don Pagare was profuse in his ex- ‘ pressions of gratification at the honor of the visit, and he experienced sincere _ pleasure in furnishing all the informa- tion desired. He was eager tHat the Americans should meet his daughter, Margarita, who had just returned from a young ladies’ seminary and spoke the language of the visitors perfectly. Margarita was unlike any De ia Tierra pleture the Gringuses had ever framed in- their minds. She was un- commonly fair and grace personified. Mrs. Gringus pronounced the girl's features angelic. Certainly her big, lustrous, dark eyes were the kind that conquered hearts and enslaved poets. She was the cultured one of the family and spoke English with an accent that was music to the ear. The remainder of the De la Tierra femininity kept se- cluded. “How do you like to be back on the ranch?” inquired Mrs. Gringus of the Birl. “I love it,” replied Margarita, “and now I shall make my father fulfill his promise to build an imposing Casa de la Tierra. This ancient adobe does not comport well with the beauty of our little kingdom. Do you not think I am right?” Of course they thought so, or at least they expressed themselves that way. Still. when they bade Don Pagare “Adios,” (which was about all the Spanish they knew), Mrs. Gringus couldn’t help heaving a sigh, “Poor ~-Margarita!” On the way home Joshua said, “Darned if I wouldn't like to have a daughter like that!” A happy thought, tinctured with a feeling akin to mercy, flitted across his brain. His boy at college figured in the thought— but he kept it to himself. The magnificent De la Tierra grant was used almost exclusively for cattle raising. The wheat and barley patches supplied nothing to the market; neither did the old mission trees and vines, nor the ill-kept garden In which the frijole plant was prominent and in which also grew those essential ingredients of the buxom tamale—corn, tomatoes and pepperg. In the trees and haysheds abode the fowls which lent the quali- fying adjective to the torrid creation with the corn husk wrapper and olive heart. On the uncultivated land a mine of agricultural gold . might lave been plowed up; but the Don was not fond of plowing and stuck to cattle, while his expenses ran further and further ahead of his income. . Americans on small tracts had sowed bread and pros- pered, and were now planting fruits that promised larger profits, while the Don courted pleasure and avoided life’s serious clalms. His “to-day" was for enjoyment; his “to-morrow” for busi- ness; but “to-morrow” was always coming. The Don reached the unfortunate stage where he could borrow no more money on his land, while the sale of his cattle would hardly suffice to pay the long overdue interest. No matter. It was folly to worry and he concluded to offer a band of steers to Gringus for the needed “dinero.” Unusual circumstances brought his neighbo! expectedly to the rancho. Two of Joshua's best cows had been killed by mountain lions and the Yankee rode down to enlist the sons of De la Tierra in a hunt for the com- mon enemy. “I'm nearly as much afraid of them greasers now as of mountain lions,” declared Mrs. Gringus, as her husband left her at the door. “Them De la Tierras know mighty well about their mortgages and they haven't got a syark of love for you. Them’s the kind of people that lays in wait and stabs in the back, or shoots from be- hind. Be careful, Joshua! I've actu- ally had dreams of a horrible fuss he- tween you and the Don!” Gringus acquainted the Don with the facts of the invasion by wild beasts, and the Spaniard summoned his sons and rattled off something in Eis own tongue. - “Pronto,” he cried, and the boys proceeded to the stable, to return astride mustangs and with an extra mount for the Don. They procured rifies at the casa and awaited orders. Meantime the Don had broached the subject of a cattle sale, urging Joshua to go out for a few minutes and take a look at the steers for himself, Joshua cantered up the side hill to- ward his own dividing line, where the herd was resting under the spreading ozks. Don Pagare could see Joshua ap- proaching the cattle in the distance, but was suddenly startled by an omin- Ous movement of the herd. A mad rearing and bellowing was followed by a stampede and a cloud of dust came rolling down the valley. In front of it, spurring his horse and riding for life, was Gringus. . The Don leaped into his saddle, and, with his sons, advanced into the open field. The American’s danger had evi- dently vanished. His strong, swift steed gained steadily on the pursuing column. He was leading the herd by 2 hundred yards and was only half the distance from the casa, when, to the Herror of the onlookers, his animal stumbled and fell, throwing the rider, who lay motionless, while the horse, relling over and regaining its feet, re= sumed its flight. On came the blind, infuriated herd, nearer and nearer, and the dust cloud rese like a gigantic pall. Gringus re- ccvered his senses sufficiently to ap- preciate his frightful perli. His ears were filled with the noise of the hoofbeats. The very earth shook, and, in his Imagination, he felt his flesh torn by sharp horns. He strug- gled to rise, but weakness bore him down, and his hope expired. He sank, face to the ground. Great God! There was trampling of hoofs on either side of him now. Death stood over him and he awaited the stroke. Theén he felt himself raised to his feet and heard a voice. “Nombre- de Dios, el fusil!™ the Don. Shots rang out, and then, befors Joshua could fully realize what was happening, he was lifted into the arms of the Don, whose mustang, carrying the twain, was spurred on to safety. A half dozen steers had been killed to hold back the herd, but that was nothing. The Don thought not of the loss, but of a triumph—he had saved a human life! At the casa he smoked and smiled with pride. Gringus was still weak. when the De la Tierras conveyed him home. His face was very white, and when Mrs. Gringus saw him coming up the road in the De la Tierra wagon she knew something desperate had occurred. “My God, they’'ve killed him—they've killed him,” she cried, wringing her hands. The _Don happily misunderstood. Springing from the rig and running forward, sombrero in hand, he en- treated Mrs. Gringus to be calm. “Ee's all seguro,” he assured her. “Ee’s coming near to killing senor—but ee’s no kill—Gracias a Dios!—ee’s no kill'” Gringus was helped out of the wagon, -and his tearful spouse kissed his pallied face lovingly, took him in her arms and almost carried him into the cottage. “Tell me, Joshua,” sald Mrs. Grin- gus, when they were alone, “are you sure it wasn’'t a put-up job?” “Wife,” said the man, “don’t say an i1l word of the Don. God knows I owe my life to him! The hoofs of the herd were almost upon me—I gave way im despair; but the Don—the ‘greaser,” we used to call him—the Don put his life n me and the fate that over- cried m"Lord forgive me for wronging him, en.” “It's tough—it's tough to think,™ sald Joshua, “that I'm lawing to turn them out of their home<to drive them out of the valley.” “Hush,” put in his wife. “Think of Joshua junior. It don’t pay to mix up sentiment with business! Don’t the Bible say ‘To him who hath shall be given and from him who hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath? Buy the Don a dollar’s worth of cigarettes—he’ll think just as much of ycu. He can't keep the place no- how.” Ard that settled it. Some weeks afterward Gringus paid two thousand dollars—a big price—for the Dor’s castle. De la Tierra was more than satisfied. Now, the Don had never, in twoscore years, failed to cele- brate Mexican independence day, and the memorable 16th of September came again. On Rancho de la Tierra, as of yore, there was feasting, racing. games and dancing. The Don bhad Invited all the gountry, and he gave bread, meat, wine, music—everything—free. “That eats up the two thousand,”™ said Joshua. “But,” he confided to his wife, 've got an idea our Joshua Junior might take a shine to Margarita and, if she was willing, why—a mar- rlage like that would be a darned nice thing!” The subject was brought up as soon as the younger Joshua reached home from college; but—there it was again—Joshua junior had al- ready married a city girl and had hur- ried home ahead of his companion to break the news gently to mother. Another year went by. A new lord —the Yankee—ruled over Rancho de la Tierra, and he astonished the natives by giving a flesta on Mexican inde- pendence day. Joshua junior wanted it so, and Joshua junior had his way. Among the guests were Don Ragare de la Tierra and his family. They had an income from the boys, who had hired out as vaqueros. They ate, drank, danced; the Don rolled and smoked one cigarette after another, and all were light hearted and gay— all save Margarita, whose beautiful face was sad. Long she gazed at the st lerdid mansion that replaced the old adobe. Once she had dreamed of a noble Casa de la Tierra there, and— she wished she had dreamed forever.